Portal:Cotton library
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The Cotton or Cottonian library is a collection of manuscripts once owned by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton.
The manuscripts were named after their physical position in the library, relative to busts of historical figures. For example, Cotton Nero A x means "by the bust of Nero, top shelf (A), tenth book (x)". While the volumes are no longer in this position, they retain the names as their British Library call numbers.
Manuscripts
[edit]Cleopatra
[edit]- Cotton Cleopatra A II: Life of St. Modwenna
- Cotton Cleopatra A III: The Cleopatra Glossaries: Latin-Old English glossaries (Commons file)
- Cotton Cleopatra A XIV
- Cotton Cleopatra A XVI
- Cotton Cleopatra B III
- Cotton Cleopatra B IX
- Cotton Cleopatra B XIII: Miscellany (Commons file)
- Cotton Cleopatra C VIII
- Cotton Cleopatra D I: (Commons file)
- ff. 2r–82r: Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, De Architectura (Concerning Architecture)
- f. 82v: Prosper of Aquitaine, Epigrammata ex Sententiis Sancti Augustini (Abridgments from the Sentences of St. Augustine); Epitaph of Vitalis
- ff. 83r–128v: Vegetius, De Re Militari (Concerning Military Matters)
- ff. 130r–197v: Solinus, Collectanea Rerum Mirabilium (Collection of Wonderful Things)
- Cotton Cleopatra E VI
Julius
[edit]- Cotton Julius A II (transcription project)
- Item 1, ff. 2–9 (1st quarter of the 12th century)
- Bede, De temporum ratione, books lxvi–lxx (imperfect)
- Item 2, ff. 10–135 (mid-11th century)):
- Ælfric, Grammar (10r–120v, imperfect)
- Ælfric, Glossary (120v–130v)
- A grammatical treatise, beginning "Sum verbum substantium" (131r–135v)
- Item 3, ff. 136–144 (2nd half of the 12th century):
- A metrical prayer (136r–137r)
- Adrian and Ritheus (137v–140r)
- Disticha Catonis (141r–144v: excerpts)
- Item 1, ff. 2–9 (1st quarter of the 12th century)
- Cotton Julius A VII (transcription project)
Nero
[edit]- Cotton Nero A X
- A X/1:
- Article 1, ff 1–40: Justus de Justis: De dignitate procerum antiquissimorum Britonicum
- Article 2: Letter from Justus de Justis to John Chedworth (dated 1468)
- Articles 4–6: Bernhard von Clairvaux: Meditationes piissime de cognitione humane conditionis. Epitaph of Ranulf Brito, Abbot of Ramsey.
- A X/2: article 3, four poems by the "Pearl poet" (transcription project)
- A X/1:
- Cotton Nero D IV: The Lindisfarne Gospels (transcription project)
Vitellius
[edit]- Cotton Vitellius A XV: The Nowell Codex (transcription project)
Catalogues
[edit]- "The Early Catalogues of the Cottonian Library" by in The British Library Journal, 6 (2) (1980), pp. 144–157 (external scan)